Hiv Report Daunting For Girls

Study: Aids Risk Twice As High For Those Teen-agers As Boys

Disadvantaged teen-age girls, particularly African-Americans, are being infected with HIV at younger ages and at higher rates than their male counterparts, according to a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Florida's rate of HIV infection among young women is the second highest in the nation at 9.8 per 1,000. Only Washington, D.C., at 10.3 per 1,000 had a higher rate.

The state has had one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS almost since the epidemic began.

Dr. Michael Sension, who sees young adults with HIV and AIDS as part of his Fort Lauderdale practice, said he is not surprised that young women are outpacing teen-age boys in contracting HIV.

``My impression would be that teen-age girls tend to have older boyfriends. A 15-year-old girl who is sexually active probably doesn't have a 15-year-old boyfriend, but an 18-year-old or even a 20-year-old boyfriend,'' said Sension, who treats patients at the North Broward Hospital District's Urgent Care center for HIV and AIDS.

The study is based on HIV testing of more than 350,000 16- to 21-year-olds from 50 states and the U.S. territories who were applying to the federal Job Corps program. The testing occurred from 1990 through 1996.

A county-by-county breakdown for South Florida was not available from the CDC, but the Florida Department of Health's statistics for HIV infection since July 1997, when the state began collecting such data, show a similar trend.

Statewide, more than twice as many young women in the 16-to-20 age group were diagnosed with HIV than young men _ the ratio was 198-to-90 _ between July 1997 and June 1998.

``The study shows what we thought all along _ that this disease disproportionately impacts lower socio-economic groups, as well as minorities,'' said Dr. Jean Malecki, director of the Palm Beach County Health Department.

``We have been trying to impact this hard-to-reach population by channeling money to community organizations that have more access to young people,'' Malecki said.

She said the department's sexually transmitted disease specialists have ``definitely observed'' the phenomenon of older males infecting younger females. Sension said the CDC study and the Florida Health Department statistics reflect that young people don't see themselves as being vulnerable to HIV infection.

``If they are young, in shape, and physically attractive,'' their partners are not worried, he said.

``While I'm not surprised by the numbers, I am concerned about the number of young people we're seeing in our program in the 18- to 24-year-old age group who have advanced disease,'' Sension said.

``That means they were infected at 14 or 15, or even earlier,'' he said.

And they could have had many sex partners before they developed their first symptoms, Sension said.

There was some good news that came out of the study:

The national overall infection rate among both young males and females declined between the years 1990 and 1996.